A Knife in the Kitchen

Tom documents the bloody knife

In hindsight it was a stupid thing to do…the meat was still frozen as hard as a rock. Dinner was going to be a little late, but I should have had patience and just let the meat sit. Then there was the angle of the knife as I tried to cut apart the two hunks that were frozen together and the force I was using to get them to separate. In a flash of movement, the knife slipped violently off the rock-hard meat and I felt the shot of pain in my hand.

So there I was pacing in the kitchen, clutching my hand. I had stabbed completely through the pointer finger on my left hand. It was a pretty spectacular cut (two long cuts where the knife entered and exited the finger). Still it was not overly serious. If we’d been in the States, we’d probably have gone to the hospital or a clinic. It was deep enough to warrant stitches and the knife had been dirty.

So why didn’t we just go to an island hospital or clinic? Well things are different on the islands. Medical care is not very good. We actually worry that by seeking care we may end up worse off. The doctor on our last team had some very sobering things to say about the basic sanitation practices at the local hospitals.

So for minor medical situations we usually take care of things at home. We have a large first aid kit and resources like "Where There is No Doctor" (a book for people in our type of settings). Still we have to know when situations are beyond us. Island doctors and nurses may not have the training that we'd hope, but in a real emergency we would go to them. If it was serious, most likely we'd have to leave the islands.

Tom reading to kids in pjs on Father's Day

You might think we're being hard on the island medical system but islanders themselves see it as one of their country's biggest shortcomings. If a medical situation gets serious, islanders always look to get off the islands because here they don't have the equipment, the specialists, the diagnostic tools, the medicines, or the funds to care for the population. Traveling seems to be the only choice, but travel is expensive and sometimes dangerous as finding visas to insure legal travel options is often unavailable.  Dangerous, illegal, unjust, and desperate—it really is a mess.

Back to the situation at hand, my bleeding finger….Thankfully not serious. We talked it through and had a medical consult over the phone. It was decided that the wound would hold together fine without stitches and our teammate (who is a nurse) came and helped dress it. Tom will begin my knife safety training soon, in the meantime he has taken over all meat-cutting.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We’re very thankful that Megan’s cut finger was not more serious and that it seems to be healing well so far. We’ve heard word that two single ladies are set to join our team and will hopefully be ready to come to the islands in November! We’ve been praying for our team to grow so this is exciting. Megan had a good opportunity to share with a neighbor friend this week. One of the men that Tom shared with recently says he continues to be thinking about the things Tom said. We pray for open hearts. This Father's Day we were especially thankful for Tom and what a great father he is!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Wounds usually get infected here on the islands- pray that Megan’s finger can heal quickly with no infection. Pray that a couple or family would be able to join our team— there has been some interest but we continue to pray for the right people. We’ve been making some progress on our fasting-month projects but pray that we get some good work in this week. It’s the last week of the fasting month (the biggest holiday of the year will probably be next Monday). This Wednesday or Thursday will be a special night for islanders called the Night of Power, where they believe God is close and their prayers are most effective. Pray for islanders that those who seek will find!